MDIFW Safety Coordinator Meredith Pogurdski discusses the need for volunteer hunter safety instructors at Rangeley Region Guides and Sportsmen’s Association potluck dinner and meeting.

With currently no hunter safety courses running in Franklin County, members of the Rangeley Region Guides & Sportsmen’s Association invited Meredith Podgurski, recreational safety coordinator for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife to the association’s Clubhouse in Oquossoc on September 19 for a potluck supper and meeting to discuss what steps would need to be taken to bring such courses back to the area.

Sonny Pierce, RRGSA board member and former fisheries biologist with DIFW, reminded the 30-plus members in attendance of the need for active volunteers.

“Believe it or not, we are over one 100 old now, this club,” Pierce said. “This is the oldest club in the state of Maine, and we have over 1,000 members, which puts us into one of the largest clubs in the state of Maine, as well. But everybody’s busy today, and it’s hard to get people in and involved with the club. There are so many things that we would love to do.”

Besides safety programs, Pierce mentioned hopes for building up the gun range, clays and archery.

“So many activities that we have in this club have kind of fallen by the wayside because we don’t have help,” Pierce said. “We don’t have people stepping forward to give a hand to actually run these programs, and the board of directors can’t do it all. We need the help of the membership.”

Pierce spoke of the intention of the club to focus on recruitment in the upcoming months and requested they consider reaching out to see where they might help, summarizing his call for volunteers by saying, “We want to serve the interest of the membership. We need membership input.”

Kenny Lemke, RRGSA member and certified hunter safety instructor since 1980, already a regular volunteer in Junior Guides, suggested that young people in the community spend too much time on the computers and would benefit from in-person instruction rather than an online hunter safety course.

“Kids go on the computer and do their thing, but most of them would do better in the classroom, so you could actually show them and answer their questions,” Lemke said.

Podgurski, who primarily covers the Franklin County area, has taught hunter education in Eustis and Avon and spent most of her summer at the University of Maine 4-H camp at Bryant Pond teaching shooting sports to youth at the rifle, pistol, and shotgun range. She has taught how to shoot clays, moving targets, and other basic rifle instruction and she is also the president of the Wilton Fish & Game Club.

MDIFW Safety Coordinator Meredith Podgurski speaks to an RRGSA member. Stephanie Dellavalle

“I’m a range safety officer, so live fire is a part of what I do with my job, but it’s all in the discipline of hunting activities in Maine,” she said.

Podgurski reflected on the beginning of her career, back when she was a volunteer.

“I didn’t come into this as a volunteer looking for anything,” she said. “All I wanted to do was give back. I grew up in a background of folks that game wardens weren’t our friends. I didn’t know any different until I was a teenager. And as soon as I got to understand, as soon as I shot a seven-point buck and somebody else took it within my hunting party, that ignited a passion within me. One, for safe firearms handling because of the situation, how it unfolded, and two, ethical hunting. So, I’m super passionate about what I do. I’m super passionate about safe fire, safe hunting.”

MDIFW poster Stephanie Dellavalle

The event she spoke of happened when she was 15 years old. Successfully having shot the buck, trudging through knee-deep snow, a short distance from taking the final shot to dispatch it, another slightly older teenager in her hunting party ran out in front of her, directly in her line of fire, and took several shots of his own so that he could claim the right to it.

As anyone who has taken the hunter safety course should know, this is both illegal, incredibly dangerous, and completely unethical.

This was the catalyst for a change in the way she hunted, and who she hunted with. It also led her to become a volunteer, and eventually led to her career. Looking back on it, she is grateful because there could have been an even more tragic ending.

“Yeah, it was a turning point for me. I could have been shouldered and ready to fire and he could have stepped in front of me. You know, there’s a lot of things that could have gone wrong that day,” Podgurski said.

She said that as a young child, she was not always exposed to the best behaviors and by not seeing the contrasting behavior, there was no ability to make the choice between right and wrong because she mostly only saw wrong.

“If you’re immersed in something, and that’s the way we do things, you don’t know any different until you’re old enough, or smart enough to form your own opinions. And that was a breaking point for me. I knew some of the things we did weren’t by the book, but I didn’t really know any different,” she said.

After that experience but still very young, she got a job as a ranger working on the Allagash River for the Department of Conservation. Living so remotely, game wardens were some of the few people she came in contact with. She got to know them, and her opinion of them completely changed.

Now, when she runs hunter safety courses, she always invites a game warden to talk to the class.

“It should always be a positive experience,” she said. “They’re there to help you. I always explain that these people are out there because they’re passionate about the same things we are. They care about game, for everyone. Keeping everybody safe, doing the right thing, makes everybody’s lives a lot easier. Not everyone is going to follow the rules, though, and that’s why we have enforcement for all areas of life.”

Her passion for fire safety spurs her drive to encourage volunteerism. Part of her focus is on R3: Recruitment, Retention and Reactivation. Like Pierce, she recognized the difficulty in getting help when so many folks are juggling work and family lives already.

“It’s hard. Volunteer instructors are the backbone of these programs, and they have been, historically.”

MDIFW Safety Coordinator Meredith Podgurski speaks to an RRGSA member.  Stephanie Dellavalle

While she believes it may be difficult, she also believes the challenge could be overcome and that running a class isn’t as daunting as it might sound. She said that if volunteers were found, flexible scheduling options could be arranged, and DIFW could take care of much of the rest.

She described all the freely available assistance the department would provide that included most all of the administrative work, training of volunteers, advertising and promoting the classes, and even her own guidance and commitment to assist or even lead classes in person.

“So, if you put together your own dream team, that would be the most ideal thing,” Podgurski said. “If not, I can come up. I can take the reins. I can help teach classes and get things off the ground with you all. So, when you’re a volunteer, it’s as much or as little as you want to do or can do.”

With successful grant funding, a variety of resources are available for instruction such as decoys, tree stands, harnesses, new training firearms, bows, crossbows, trapping equipment, firearms, ammunition, maps, and compasses.

“Every aspect of these programs that you can think of, we have it,” Podgurski said.

She also gave a little history lesson to explain that the financial support was thanks to federal funding from the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act.

“Signed in 1937 by President Roosevelt, FDR. That’s how long this Pittman-Robertson funding has been around. It’s an 11% tax on all firearms, ammunition, and archery equipment. And that 11% tax comes from a manufacturer level and that money is only used to facilitate habitat and conservation areas for game, recreation, and hunter education programming,” she said.

She then gave a rundown of options that are now available, and what is still needed.

“Hunter education can be offered in a multitude of ways,” she said. “It can be done solely online by anybody that’s age 16 or older. Which some folks aren’t a fan of that. When I was a volunteer instructor, that first came out. It was right around when COVID hit and I was like, ‘This is it. This is the nail in the coffin for in-person hunter safety,’ but that’s not the case at all. There is a percentage of folks that are using that, and they’re also statistically, they’re safe hunters. They’ve gotten what they need from the programming, and it’s worked out well for some folks, but we still need boots-on-the-ground-in-person classes and that’s why I’m here tonight is to try to recruit more volunteer hunter ed instructors up here. Anybody that’s interested in trapping, boating, ATV, snowmobile.”

Besides the beginner level instruction, Podgurski discussed further education for a new population of hunters who have completed the hunter education program but need further guidance.

“There might be folks that are new to hunting, that hunting is not a heritage activity within their family. They’re new to the sport and we’re seeing folks in hunter ed that are in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond that have no hunting experience,” she said.

She listed possible next-level programs to consider.

“We have Intr. to Deer Hunting 101, Part 1 and 2. Part 1 is talking mostly about scouting our area’s habitat, hanging game cameras, getting landowner permission, laws, rules, regulations, etc., and then Part 2 is after the shot: blood trailing, field dressing an animal, and what takes place. That’s when the work really begins after squeezing that trigger and we’re pursuing that animal in a wounded manner or looking to preserve that meat,” Podgurski said.

In addition, she mentioned courses for hunting upland birds, turkey hunting, trapping workshops and survival programs such as map and compass familiarity.

“So, these next step programs are designed to keep folks exercising these skills or learning about it so they can get out there confidently. The next step programs brought folks with virtually no hunting experience, no heritage within their families and they’re going out and they’re being successful,” said Podgurski, who then added a funny anecdote about one person who started hunting relatively late in life.

“We have one lady, she’s kind of our poster child for our next-step programs. She said she’s a recovered vegetarian,” said Podgurski, who continued by saying how the woman harvested her first turkey and is now trying to convert the rest of her family into turkey hunters.

Podgurski, clearly and admittedly passionate about what she does for a living, expressed her enthusiasm for these achievements.

“It’s really neat to see. These folks are brand new to some of these things and they’re getting out there and they’re being successful and they’re reaping the benefits of these activities,” she said.

She then reminded folks that it’s not just youngsters that need educating, but adults who have recently moved here from out of state who are interested in being more self-sufficient through hunting.

Podgurski concluded by reiterating the three R’s: recruitment, retention, and reactivation. If we can promote that throughout our instructors and throughout recreators, our job is going well.”

For more information, visit the RRGSA website at www.rangeleyoutdoors.org, email info@rangeleyoutdoors.org, or call 207 864-4323.

For more information about current Maine Department of Inland Fisheries programs, visit their website at www.maine.gov/ifw/programs-resources/educational-programs